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Virgin Trains Services
Virgin Trains run at least six trains per hour in and out of London’s Euston station. This is noticeably busier than both National Express East Coast in and out of Kings Cross (four trains per hour), and East Midlands Trains, (four per hour) in and out of St Pancras. |
From December 2008, as a result of the WCML route modernisation works, Virgin will be introducing a completely new timetable with increased frequencies and speeds on many routes. The draft Monday - Friday timetable's general service pattern is shown below. Other calls/timings will occurs, mainly during peak times. There will also be "non/limited stop" trains running to justify the claimed fastest journey times (on adverts for example). There will be 9 trains out of Euston. Most trains are to be run by Pendolinos with exceptions shown below:
Euston-West Midlands There will be 3 trains per hour - an XX:03 calling at Rugby, Coventry, Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street - an XX:23 calling at Watford Junction, Coventry, Birmingham International, Birmingham New Street, Sandwell & Dudley and Wolverhampton and an XX:43 calling at Milton Keynes Central, Coventry, Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street. A handful of Birmingham terminators will be operated by Super Voyagers (to be used for the few West Midlands-North Wales trains).
Euston-Manchester 3 trains per hour - an XX:00 calling at Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield, Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly - an XX:20 calling at Milton Keynes, Stoke, Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly and an XX:40 calling at Crewe, Wilmslow, Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly. This plan will have a knock-on effect on local services in the Manchester area, with a reduction in the number of peak-period local trains, a matter which has caused some controversy.
Euston-Liverpool - 1 train per hour - XX:07 calling at Stafford, Runcorn and Liverpool Lime Street.
Euston-Preston/Glasgow 1 train per hour - XX:30 calling at Warrington Bank Quay, Wigan North Western, Preston and Lancaster with most continuing to Oxenholme Lake District/Penrith(alternating), Carlisle and Glasgow Central. Some will also call at Motherwell. A handful of Lancaster terminators will be operated by Super Voyagers (the other half of a single unit split at Crewe, with the other half running towards Chester.
Birmingham-Scotland 1 train per hour XX:20 from Birmingham New Street running alternatively to Glasgow/Edinburgh and roughly similar to the current services provided now. This service will be provided with Super Voyagers only (in single formation).
Euston/West Midlands-Chester/North Wales 1 train per hour XX:10 calling at Milton Keynes, Crewe and Chester with 7 trains continuing to Flint, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction, Bangor (2 terminating here) and Holyhead, and another terminating at Wrexham General. One service will go to/from Birmingham New Street. This service will be provided with Super Voyagers only (they will be in double formation until Crewe/Chester and single formation after that, with one unit terminating at Chester/going to Lancaster, and the other continuing to North Wales/Chester).
Virgin Trains Routes
London Euston to Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton
London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly via Stoke-on-Trent or Crewe
London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street
London Euston to North Wales
London Euston to the North West of England/Scotland
Birmingham New Street to Glasgow Central/Edinburgh
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Virgin Trains History
On privatisation, Virgin West Coast inherited a mixture of Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaches, with electric locomotives of Classes 86, 87 and 90. Virgin Cross-Country also inherited several Class 43 High Speed Trains, and Mark 2 coaches which were hauled by Class 47 diesel locomotives and Class 86 locomotives on electrified routes. On privatisation, Virgin West Coast inherited a mixture of Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaches, with electric locomotives of Classes 86, 87 and 90. Virgin Cross-Country also inherited several Class 43 High Speed Trains, and Mark 2 coaches which were hauled by Class 47 diesel locomotives and Class 86 locomotives on electrified routes. |
A drive was made to improve reliability and punctuality after much press criticism in 2001, but by 2006, due to improved reliability of trains and completion of major infrastructure projects, performance was better. Virgin have undertaken a number of project to increase punctuality, including radio controlled watches.
New trains, tracks and timetable
Virgin, in 1997 placed the largest rolling stock order (£1bn) in British history with new Class 390 Pendolino tilting trains for the West Coast Main Line network. These state-of-the-art units are based on technology developed by state corporation British Rail for their prototype APT tilting train of the early 1980s; the technology was subsequently licensed to the Italian manufacturers. The Pendolino trains have a nominal top speed of 140 mph (230 km/h), but are limited to 125 mph (200 km/h) on the West Coast Main Line; there have been proposals for 135 mph (217 km/h) running on certain sections of the West Coast Main Line, namely the remodelled Trent Valley area but these are yet to be considered by Network Rail. The cross-country routes were served by new diesel-electric four-carriage Class 220 Voyager and five-carriage Class 221 SuperVoyager trains. The SuperVoyager trains have tilting ability like the Pendolino and were used for services operating on the West Coast Main Line, and the Cherwell Valley line.
By December 2004 Virgin Trains had replaced all of the rolling stock inherited from British Rail. Although the new trains offer many features not available on the older stock they also operate at higher densities, with some seats having reduced leg-room and fewer seats overall, meaning passengers often having to stand, sometimes for hundreds of miles. The cramped conditions are attributable to the inward leaning walls of the carriages that facilitate tilting. The trains were intended to work at much higher frequencies than under British Rail, and so each train has fewer seats than the ones it replaced. However the extremities of the network did not get a higher frequency, and key trains remain busy.
The West Coast Main Line itself has been the subject of a massive £10bn refurbishment programme to accept the new trains, one that has been the subject of massive controversy, since it is now running three years late, has cost twice the original estimate, and has been cut back so that the Pendolinos' 140mph potential speed is not fully used, with trains running at a maximum 125mph due to signalling constraints. (see West Coast Main Line page for full details).
In May 2003, Virgin Trains introduced some new set-down only or pick-up only stops into its passenger timetable. The intention of the restricted stops is to stop short-distance passengers from overcrowding the long-distance trains.
Additionally, some destinations, including Blackpool, Poole, Portsmouth, London Paddington and Swansea, were removed from the Virgin Trains network altogether, and some services pass through important junction stations, such as Didcot Parkway without stopping. As well as this, Milton Keynes Central is now sparsely served by peak time West Coast services in order to deter commuters from using Virgin's services as an additional link to Euston.
Virgin Trains Future
Projected growth in passenger numbers on the West Coast routes has prompted discussions about increasing the length of Pendolino sets to 11 vehicles. The likelihood of 10 car formations was foreseen in the original WCML strategy, so minimal infrastructure improvements would be required. The DFT is now going to order 2 extra coaches for 31 of the 52 sets to start with. This will be completed by 2012 just before the franchise change in the march of 2012.
Following the completion of the Trent Valley Line quadrupling and Rugby junction upgrades to allow 125mph running (completed by 2008), West Coast journey times are expected to fall further; Glasgow-Euston 4hr 15mins, Euston-Birmingham 1hr 10 mins (fastest) or 1hr 20mins (off-peak). Virgin claim that 135 mph running may be possible in places, although Network Rail remain sceptical - stating that significant signalling upgrades would be required.
After much planning, an open-access operator, Wrexham & Shropshire submitted a plan to operate services between London and North Wales. This involves utilising a stretch of the WCML. Virgin Trains unsuccessfully objected to this proposal, which sees Wrexham & Shropshire having trains call at Wolverhampton. Due to the moderation of competition protection that is part of Virgin's West Coast franchise agreement, Wrexham & Shropshire had to submit a modified proposal that will involve only limited use of Wolverhampton, with Tame Bridge Parkway train station used as its main Midlands stop. Wrexham & Shropshire began their operations on 28th April 2008. In February 2008, Virgin announced that they would also begin services between London and Wrexham via Chester. Initially on a trial basis with one train per day on weekdays in each direction, should the service prove successful Virgin plan to introduce more services during the week and at weekends.
Virgin Trains Fleet
The majority of Virgin's services along the WCML are operated by its fleet of 53 nine-car Class 390 Pendolino EMUs. The Class 390 units are also used on services along the unelectrfied North Wales Coast Line. For these, they are pulled by one of 16 Class 57 diesel locomotives operated by Virgin. These locomotives are primarily used for "Thunderbird" duties. Virgin also operates 16 five-car Class 221 Super Voyager DMUs; these primarily operate on the WCML north of Birmingham, and on the North Wales line. Virgin has also been operating a Class 90 electric locomotive and rake of coaches as a back-up set for the WCML to cover any problems with the Pendolino and Voyager fleets.
The Pendolino fleet is allocated to the Manchester Traincare Centre at Longsight , with lighter maintenance and overnight stabling also carried out at Wembley (London), Oxley ( Wolverhampton ), Edge Hill ( Liverpool ) and Polmadie ( Glasgow ). Longsight is also ' home ' to the Class 57 ' Thunderbird' fleet. Thunderbird locomotives are stationed at strategic points along the WCML such as Rugby, Stafford and Preston.
The Class 87 and 90 electric locomotives, as well as the small number of Class 86's retained for WCML duties, were allocated to Willesden depot in northwest London. Cross Country's allocation of '86's' were allocated to Longsight, Manchester. The HST sets were allocated to Laira ( Plymouth ) although a small number of these would be regularly based at Longsight to operate on WCML services between Manchester/Holyhead and Euston. The Mk3 coaching sets were allocated to Longsight and Polmadie (Glasgow) whilst the West Coast allocation of Mk2 sets - used almost exclusively on Euston to West Midlands trains - were allocated to Oxley (Wolverhampton).
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